Auto Hunting

No. 168

At the same time as Yoo-seong turned his head, he pulled the wrist blade from his left wrist.

Despite the Queen’s Hug getting synthesized into a whole new different suit, it had retained that feature.

Of course, the reason it had remained was that nothing else could reinforce it. It was a perfect weapon, containing a dragon’s flame.

Yoo-seong didn’t need to know who the young man behind him was. He’d recognized him at first glance. It was Miracle Boy Version 2.

“…!”

A look of surprise filled Miracle Boy’s face as the wrist blade flashed before him.

“Whoa! Hey! I’m not being controlled right now!” he exclaimed and raised his arms.

Yoo-seong paused and raised his eyebrows but did not put away the blade. Then, after a few moments, he released the button.

“I’m sorry,” he said. “It was easy to misunderstand…”

“What? But I haven’t done anything…” the young man whined.

“Korean,” Yoo-seong sighed. “It’s not a language that anyone can easily master,” he added.

“I d-don’t…” Miracle Boy stammered as if he had just realized it himself. “I don’t know where I learned it… but I’m sorry anyway.”

Yoo-seong nodded.

The Grays’ leader was dead.

There must be a few Grays who had survived the chaos, but there was only a small chance that an entity powerful enough to control the Miracle Boy would have remained.

“The other hunters…” Yoo-seong inquired.

“Everyone is fine… except for those who were already gone.” The young man’s expression turned dark as he spoke.

They had not died from fighting the Grays. For those creatures, human bodies were just interesting subjects for analysis. Yoo-seong didn’t want to think too deeply about what they’d done to “study” the hunters they had captured. Besides…

“I heard that you saved the hunters from Team A,” Miracle Boy added.

While Yoo-seong had been fighting the Grays, the Miracle Boy had encountered the fourteen hunters inside the crack.

“Outside the crack you opened, the military bombing operation is still going on.”

Yoo-seong sighed as he heard the situation. “It must have been going on for an hour now,” he said with a tired voice.

Nothing would remain standing in Nashville by now.

“They must have really wanted me dead,” Miracle Boy said with a sad smile. “Of course, it’s fine by me, but I got people involved who shouldn’t have been…”

“I don’t think you are to blame for it,” Yoo-seong interrupted him.

The Miracle Boy’s eyes were dark and heavy, contrasting with his youthful features. Like the other hunters that Yoo-seong had saved, he looked betrayed. With his own country trying to kill him, the realization that he had nowhere to go must have hit hard.

“First, they send me on this dangerous mission. Then, they bomb the operation area. Whether it was just a coincidence or a move driven by politics…” The Miracle Boy sighed. If it was the latter, it meant that there was no guarantee that he would be safe once they returned from the crack. And the fact that they were willing to obliterate Nashville from the map along with their own hunters meant that they would not hesitate to do it again.

“I was thinking of waiting for the bombing to end. Fortunately, this place seemed safe. There weren’t any monsters except for those under the Grays’ control,” Miracle Boy shared. “Once it’s quiet, I plan to show up in Nashville and negotiate. My family…”

“What’s your name?” Yoo-seong asked.

“Oh, yes… It’s Jonathan. Jonathan Mosley.”

“Okay, Jonathan. Where should I begin…?” Yoo-seong mumbled as he scratched his head. Then he sighed and added, “Jonathan, this will not end with what you’re planning to do.”

“No?”

“The situation will not get any better. Nothing will change, even if you show yourself. Do you think that negotiating for those hunters’ lives will stop those who wanted to kill you?”

“……”

“All you’ll be doing is increasing the chance of you and your companions getting killed.”

Jonathan bit his lip with a frustrated expression. He must have thought about this as well. Yoo-seong had accurately pointed out the possibility he had been trying to ignore.

“But… there’s nothing else I can do. What can I do?”

Tears began to well up in the young man’s eyes. To Yoo-seong, he looked even younger, perhaps not even twenty years old.

“There is another way. Something more certain,” he said.

Jonathan’s expression immediately turned doubtful, yet hopeful at the same time.

“Follow me,” Yoo-seong said firmly.

“I beg your pardon?”

“Literally follow me. Go to Korea.”

“Are you insane? That doesn’t make sense!” the young man exclaimed.

“Think about it,” Yoo-seong said with a smile on his lips. “You already know that I can close cracks, right? In addition to that, I have the ability to get a little farther from here, open another rift, and come out,” Yoo-seong began. “Then, we can come out at any spot in America without being noticed.”

“Even so, seeking asylum in Korea would be…”

“Well, what’s so wrong with asylum?” Yoo-seong tilted his head. “When the bombing is over, and they can’t find anything, they’ll think you’re dead or missing. They will eventually forget about your existence.”

In the meantime, Miracle Boy and the other hunters could slip away to Korea and adopt a new nationality.

“With the Korean government’s help, you can pretend to be a civilian for a while. Perhaps you’ll have plastic surgery, and you can live in peace.”

“Okay, wait for a second,” Jonathan raised his hand. “These people’s families are in America. And their careers…”

“Hey,” Yoo-seong cut him off. “How much money do you think a country is willing to spend scouting foreign veteran hunters?”

Jonathan nodded in agreement. Regardless of which country it was, teams of top veteran hunters were a welcome addition to the industry during this time of unclosed cracks.

“It wouldn’t be too hard for their families to get Korean citizenship, and the government would do everything they could to get them to Korea,” Yoo-seong assured him. “Even a country like the United States would know better than to touch civilians. They wouldn’t be harmed.”

Jonathan was silent as he considered what Yoo-seong had said.

“I think the only uncomfortable part of this deal for them would be living in a country where they don’t speak the language. As I said, Korean is not that easy,” Yoo-seong added. At this, the young man looked as if he had been hit by a hammer.

“This… what you’re saying is…”

Yoo-seong nodded. “Of course. Go ahead and gather your fellow Americans. Tell them what I’ve just discussed with you from beginning to end. If they have any questions, I’ll answer them later.”

Jonathan blinked a couple of times before nodding in agreement and turning to go.

Yoo-seong himself had no plans to stand still as he waited for them.

Taang-!

With Explosive Acceleration, he sped through the crack he’d opened to evacuate the fourteen hunters earlier. He had underestimated Alvin Hawkin’s capacity for violence.

If he didn’t close that crack, it would be possible for the original Miracle Boy to send teams through it and finish the hunters off.

‘Then,’—a sudden thought passed through his mind—‘should I close that one, too?’

Something came to mind: the crack on the Grays’ altar.

Yoo-seong couldn’t judge what to do with it. It was an unclosed crack, one that only Yoo-seong could close. If he did close it, it would serve as proof that he was alive, and Alvin Hawkins would surely begin to chase him. That would inevitably bring attention to Jonathan and the other hunters.

If he allowed the crack to remain open, however, it could also serve as a passageway for Alvin Hawkins’ men.

They would find the mess inside the Grays’ world and deduce what happened.

After thinking for a while, Yoo-seong made a decision.

“It’s up to you,” he muttered.

Then, he pressed the button.

***

Port of Los Angeles.

Chae Shin-young was waiting anxiously. With Mike Foley’s help, she had been able to escape the military base. As she waited, she had been biting her fingernails to the point of drawing blood, but she seemed oblivious to the pain.

‘How? How will this work out?’ she thought hard.

She was a sheriff, not someone who hunted monsters. However, she also cared about the safety of the world.

In the last twelve hours, twenty-seven unclosed rifts had occurred globally. Chaos had erupted in response. On the access roads she’d passed through from Nevada, confused crowds had begun to form. While there were no unclosed rifts yet in Los Angeles, a few had appeared in New York and Washington. In this state, the sheriffs after her wouldn’t be able to focus. It had to be a hectic time for the US Defense Agency.

Thanks to this, Chae Shin-young had been able to contact her home country and request support. A ship had been arranged for her return, ready to dock and pick her up anytime.

However, she couldn’t just leave.

‘Let’s give it three hours…’ she thought.

She asked the ship’s captain to wait a few more hours before picking her up at the port. However…

‘I don’t think Yoo-seong is dead,’ Chae Shin-young thought. ‘He must be alive. Perhaps he will arrive in Korea before I do.’

Suddenly…

Tuk-!

There was a heavy sensation on her shoulder. Chae Shin-young immediately spun, throwing her elbows out. However…

Tuguk-!

Her opponent easily blocked her.

“Really? An attack before even seeing who it was?” her opponent exclaimed.

Chae Shin-young rolled her eyes and sighed with relief.

“I knew it was you even without looking,” she said to Yoo-seong, who was standing behind her. “I just wanted to smash your face with my elbow even once,” she added.

She didn’t need to ask how he’d found her. “The ship is ready,” she told him.

“Good. How many people can this ship carry?”

“Why? Are you bringing people with us?”

“Seventy-two people, to be exact,” Yoo-seong nodded.

Chae Shin-young was stunned for a few moments. “Where are they?” she asked.

“Not in this world,” Yoo-seong answered. “If you tell me where the ship is, I’ll open a crack so they can get out and land immediately on the ship.”

Chae Shin-young wasn’t stupid. She knew who those seventy-two people must be.

“Is the Miracle Boy Version Two…”

“Yes.” Yoo-seong did not wait for her to finish her question. “Where is the ship?” He was feeling impatient. “I won’t be going with you guys. I have to move as fast as I can and meet someone important,” he told Chae Shin-young.

“If you mean the Director…”

“No, not the Director,” Yoo-seong clarified.

If he left everything to Director Yang Chang-guk, it would be a lot of trouble for the man.

“It’s just that I promised these people a lot of things, and I need to make sure they get them.”

Chae Shin-young nodded.

After twenty minutes, a cargo ship heading to Busan Port sailed with seventy-three undeclared passengers.

Yoo-seong watched the ship moving away for a while before checking the map on his phone. On it, he plotted a straight line between him and the Blue House.